Smart factories or factory 4.0: the contribution of the new factory to the world economy is estimated at 500 billion in 5 years. This is the estimate by Capgemini who presented its Smart Factories Report created by interviewing 1000 front-line executives in companies with a turnover exceeding one billion dollars. And what comes out? First of all, what is the smart factory? According to Capgemini it employs digital technologies including the Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics in order to enhance productivity, quality and flexibility. Characteristics of smart factories include collaborative robots and workers using elements of augmented reality (helmets, protections, lenses, tablets, wearables) and machines capable of signaling the need for maintenance. By the end of 2022 - explains the Report - manufacturers expect that 21% of their plants will be transformed into smart factories. Industries such as aerospace and defense, industrial manufacturing and automotive – where workers already interact with intelligent machines – will lead this transition.
The digitization of factories is a necessity
Thanks to improvements in productivity, efficiency and flexibility, smart factories will benefit from significant reductions in operating costs. As a result, most industrial companies have already embarked on the digitization of their factories to remain competitive; only 16% of respondents say they have not undertaken any initiatives in this sense, or have no imminent plans to implement them.
Early adopters – including factories in the United States and Western Europe – are driving the group; half of respondents from the US, France, Germany and the UK have already implemented smart factories, against 28% of respondents in India and 25% in China. There is also a gap between sectors: 67% of industrial manufacturing and 62% of aerospace and defense organizations have embarked on the path towards smart factories. However, just over a third (37%) of pharmaceutical companies and companies operating in the life science world exploit digital technology, thus opening up their business to the disruptive change in the industry.
More and more capital is being invested in smart factories
More than half (56%) of respondents have invested more than $100 million in smart factories in the past five years, and 20% said they have invested more than $500 million. However, according to the analysis of the Digital Transformation Institute of Capgemini, only a small number of companies (6%) are in an advanced stage of digitizing production. Furthermore, only 14% of those interviewed said they were satisfied with the degree of success achieved.
As efforts by smart factory manufacturers scale up and yields improve, the report estimates that more investments will be made in digitization. The climax of the Digital Transformation Institute's prediction is that half of the factories could turn into smart factories by the end of 2022, with an increase in productivity of up to 1.500 trillion dollars on the total global economy.
"This study shows that we are currently in the midst of the digital industrial revolution and that the impact on overall efficiency will be significant," said Antonio Ziliani, Vice President, Head of Digital Manufacturing at Capgemini Italy. "The next few years will be crucial."
All this revolution will have an impact on work. More than half (54%) of respondents are providing their employees with digital skills training, while 44% are investing in digital talent acquisition to fill the skills gap. For highly skilled workers in industries such as automation, analytics and cyber security, the employment opportunities are even greater.
